(CNN) — Conservation teams opened the second time capsule workers found at the site where a Robert E. Lee statue once stood in Richmond, Virginia.
The crew was forced to remove one side of the box to preserve the materials inside. Kate Ridgeway, an archaeological curator from Virginia, led the opening of the box, saying it was “a little bit wetter than we expected.”
However, the materials inside were in significantly better condition than they thought they could be.
“We thought they were going to be a mess, but no,” Ridgeway said.
What’s in the time capsule?
The allegedly most talked about item that could have been in the box was a possible photo of President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin; There is only one photo of the coffin.
Instead, Crews found a printed image from an 1865 issue of Harper’s Weekly that showed a figure crying over Lincoln’s grave.
The second time capsule was found where the Robert E. Lee statue used to be, which was removed in September 2021. (Credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images)
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Additional newspapers, books, envelopes and letters were also found in the box. In addition, there were coins, a silver dime with the date 1883, and some ammunition.
The teams continue to go through the box, in addition to working to preserve the items they already found.
An 1875 almanac, two withered books, a coin and a cloth envelope were among the artifacts inside the first time capsule that was opened last week.
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